Matthew Miller, center, poses with some of those who helped his father, Mark, after he fell down an embankment Sunday. At left is neighbor Larry Bond, and Green Valley Fire District engineer Anthony Taylor is at right. He was on the crew that responded to the call.

Bailey the basset hound channels Lassie, saves owner

Matthew Miller, center, poses with some of those who helped his father, Mark, after he fell down an embankment Sunday. At left is neighbor Larry Bond, and Green Valley Fire District engineer Anthony Taylor is at right. He was on the crew that responded to the call.

Green Valley Fire District

Green Valley Fire District firefighter Mike Alfaro cuddles with Bailey, who helped rescue his owner after a nasty fall Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Miller said his 82-year-old father, Mark, was walking his 11-year-old basset hound, Bailey, when he fell down an embankment near his home.

"Bailey ran up the hill and down the road barking and barking and a neighbor followed him. It was a 'Lassie Come Home' kind of thing," Miller said Friday.

The neighbor, Larry Bond, called 911 and the Green Valley Fire District responded.

GVFD spokesman L.T. Pratt said firefighters helped Miller up the 15-foot slope in the 3000 block of South Via del Tirol, and took him to Banner University Medical Center in Tucson.

During a brief telephone interview Friday from UMC, Mark Miller said he was feeling "a lot better now."

Matthew Miller said that after hearing about the accident, he drove from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Tucson.

He said his father, who moved to Green Valley from New York City 18 years ago, fractured his skull and some ribs in the fall. He was admitted to ICU, but after showing some improvement was moved into the trauma unit.

Doctors hoped he'd be well enough to move to a rehab center this weekend, Matthew Miller said.

His father needs to regain some motor control, but he used to be a marathon runner and hopefully that will aid in his recovery, he said.

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Assistant Editor Kim Smith moved to Arizona from Michigan when she was 16. She graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in journalism in 1989. She has worked at seven newspapers of varying size in Arizona, Texas and Nevada.

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